KDE Plasma 6 focuses on Wayland
The KDE Plasma desktop environment is available in the new version 6. It is based on Qt 6, activates Wayland by default, and supports color vision deficiencies.
The Plasma6 desktop greets you kindly after the update.
(Image: Screenshot / ktn)
Despite the large version jump, KDE Plasma 6 is visually quite similar to its predecessor; previous users should feel right at home. The biggest visible innovation is the floating panel. By default, it moves the control bar away from the screen edges and also features rounded corners. It's somewhat reminiscent of Windows 11 and docks back to the panel if a window switches to full-screen mode.
(Image: Screenshot / ktn)
The control bar can also hide itself more intelligently. In “Dodge Windows” mode, it only disappears from the screen when a window approaches it or when a window is maximized. In Plasma 6, the control bar can be customized more conveniently to your preferences.
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As soon as you start editing mode, a new, clear dialog window summarizes all relevant settings. Like this change, most of the innovations in Plasma 6 are in many small details that prove to be extremely useful in practice.
(Image: Screenshot / ktn)
For example, in the system settings, the developers have reorganized the categories in the left sidebar. Additionally, more default applications can be specified in the system settings.
See, Hear, Wallpaper
People with color vision deficiency have difficulty distinguishing between certain colors, which in turn makes it difficult to operate programs. KDE Plasma 6 therefore optionally applies a color filter to the entire screen to make colors distinguishable again. The desktop environment offers filters for people with protanopia (red-blindness), deuteranopia (green-blindness), and tritanopia (blue-blindness). The strength of the color filter can be adjusted to the personal color vision deficiency. To activate the filter, you need to enable the corresponding desktop effect in the system settings under “Desktop Effects” (via the path System Settings – Window Management – Desktop Effects – Accessibility).
In KDE Plasma 5, the wallpaper could only be changed by right-clicking on the desktop. In the new version, this can finally also be done in the system settings.
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Operation!
Long-time Plasma fans will have to relearn one thing: A single mouse click now only selects a file or directory. Only a double-click opens a document or the corresponding folder. Touchpad owners only need to tap once with their finger to trigger a mouse click under a Wayland session. The task switcher, used to cycle through all open windows, has also changed: in Plasma 5, holding down the Alt key and pressing Tab would bring up a sidebar with all windows. Plasma 6, on the other hand, arranges window thumbnails in a grid in the center of the screen.
(Image: Screenshot / ktn)
And another thing that existing users may need to get used to: When you click on the scroll bar, Plasma 6 jumps directly to the corresponding point within the document. Previously, Plasma only scrolled screen by screen. The previous version also switched the workspace when you turned the mouse wheel on the desktop. This behavior, often activated accidentally, is a thing of the past with Plasma 6; the desktop no longer reacts to the mouse wheel.
Pressing the key combination Meta+B allows you to quickly switch the system to another power-saving mode via the appearing window. This is particularly useful on mobile devices when battery power is running low on the go. The smart input field KRunner, which opens via Alt+F2, can now also convert time specifications between two time zones. For example, you can find out the time in Hanover when it is “11:45 PM” in Alaska. The search results of KRunner can finally be reordered. For example, you can instruct the program to always present local files before all other findings.
(Image: Screenshot / ktn)
The Plasma team now offers a total of three effects for displaying workspaces. This comes with new keyboard shortcuts. Meta+G presents all workspaces in a tiled view (Grid), while Meta+W switches to the overview, which is based on Gnome. The desktop cube effect, loved by many users, returns in Plasma 6. After pressing a key, Plasma sticks the workspaces onto the sides of a cube that can be rotated in space.
(Image: Screenshot / ktn)
If you frequently lose sight of your mouse pointer in the jumble of windows, you can enable the “Track Mouse” effect in the system settings and then quickly move the mouse back and forth. Similar to macOS, Plasma then provides an indication of the current position. Logging in on the lock screen is now optionally done via password and fingerprint, smart card, or another method. To achieve this, Plasma 6 activates multiple sessions with Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) in the background.
The previous widget for battery settings is now split in Plasma 6: The KDE team has divided its functions into two widgets. While one handles power management, the other widget is used to regulate screen brightness. In the evening, KDE Plasma gradually transitions to night colors. How quickly this happens is now visualized by a corresponding bar in the associated system settings.
Under the Hood
The desktop environment starts a Wayland session by default. In it, KDE Plasma can now output High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, provided the monitor supports the BT.2020 standard and PQ encoding. Furthermore, Plasma in a Wayland session now also applies ICC color profiles when an application uses the sRGB color space. This allows sRGB graphics to be viewed with color accuracy on monitors that have an extended color space.
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The toolkit Qt 6 now provides the foundation on which the also revised KDE Frameworks 6 are based. This collection of numerous libraries simplifies the development of Plasma applications. With the release of KDE Plasma 6, the widget API also changes. How developers can adapt existing widgets to the new interface is explained in a corresponding porting guide.
On the first start, a wizard welcomes the user and briefly introduces the desktop environment. Distributors, in particular, will be pleased that their text and logo can be displayed on the first page. This is achieved with a simply structured desktop file.
Those who want to try out KDE Plasma 6 can do so with distributions such as KDE Neon, KaOS, and Fedora KDE Live. Their live systems allow a test drive of Plasma 6 without installation.
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